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A crack was found last week in a spillway pier the Wanapum Dam on the Columbia River in Grant County, Wash. The 2-inch-wide underwater crack extends horizontally across the upstream side of the 65-foot wide pier called a monolith. It's one of 12 monoliths on the spillway.
(AP Photo/Grant County (Wash.) public utility)

NOAA reports that after the recent deluge, the water supply is back near normal for much of the region, though southern Oregon and the Sierras continue to be very dry. In fact, the snowpack is still pretty thin in much of Oregon.

A bill designed to protect Oregon's renewable portfolio standard from a threatened ballot measure, HB 4126, has passed the Legislature and will soon get the governor's signature. The change to the renewable energy mandates passed in 2007 - 25 percent renewables by 2025 for large utilities - will make it cheaper for their smaller brethren to comply by allowing them to use unbundled - and cheap - renewable energy certificates to meet the targets. It also throws a bone to larger utilities, ordering the Oregon Public Utility Commission to study the prospect of allowing the big boys to sell customized portfolios of renewable energy to commercial customers under a green tariff, which is verboten today.

Finally, the USDA says it costs about $12,000 a year to cover the first year expenses of having a baby. Portland General Electric has apparently run the numbers for energy alone. Apparently it's only 57 cents. Daily.